bellingham crealock 37 the sequel part II

Crealock 37's are a known commodity in the boat market. They are typically well cared after boats and well outfitted. And there's enough of them sold to establish a reasonable range in market value. So we made an offer on the Bellingham Crealock with a price that we felt was slightly above market value given the number of hours on the engine and the general condition of the boat. The owner counter offered with a final offer at a price that was slightly below hostage negotiation value.

Sadly, this boat is not to be ours.

bellingham crealock 37, the sequel

Did we actually lay down in the berth on the Crealock 37 in Bellingham when we visited it the first time? No. No, we didn't. So back we went for another visit. This was also the visit to decide if this is a boat we want to pull the trigger on.

As it turns out, it is. We are going to make an offer for it for a price that I feel is a skosh above market price given the condition of the boat and the amount of use it's seen. But since it's the only Crealock 37 on the west coast and shipping one from the east coast runs about 15 large (I'm so mafia, right?), this boat becomes more and more attractive. That being said, the owner of this particular boat doesn't have a firm grasp on the market value of a 1990 Pacific Seacraft 37 with 2800 hours on the engine. The odds of our offer being accepted parallels survival rates of a hellbound snowball. But nothing ventured, yeah?




What the hell is this thing?


When the dodger's not laying in the berth, it turns out we fit in there pretty well. Since Christy sleeps in the middle of our queen size bed now, the sleeping experience in this berth shouldn't be much different.


Cute.


This is a beautiful Crealock 34 just one dock down from Lively Lady. It had been on sale recently and I was slobbering over it on yachtworld.com for months. It's a supremely well-outfitted and cared for boat. As it turns out, it's also in a charter fleet. So if we can ever run across a free weekend, we're going to charter it over a Saturday and Sunday to give it a test drive. As much as we love (LOVE) the Crealock 37, we've been wondering if we could deal with a 34. There are more for sale on the west coast, newer, and better outfitted for less money. Given the opportunity to sail the boat, and live on it for a weekend will go a long way towards answering that question.

As always, we'll keep ya posted.

(more pics at our smugmug gallery.)

crealock part II

Christy's sister, McKenzie and her significant other Matt graciously agreed to run over to a boat yard in Annapolis to check out a tasty Pacific Seacraft 37 for us. As a side note, anyone looking for remote boat evaluation services should fly McKenzie and Matt to the boat with cameras in hand. They did a ridiculously thorough job photographing every last centimeter of the boat down to pages of the maintenance log. I'm guessing if your looking at boats in Waikiki, the British Virgin Islands or perhaps the Italian Mediterranean coast they'd be especially open to your offer.


She's on the hard in someone's parking lot.


I'm starting to understand the comments about PS37's dated underbody. That's much closer to a full keel than I ever realized.


Protected aperature for the prop.


Looking forward sans bimini and dodger canvas.


Matt striking a PNW pose.


We're speculating on that thing sitting in the quarterberth. My money's on a portable MRI machine. Any takers?


Yay for nav desks. We like nav desks.


Male model not included. McKenzie was pretty clear about that part.


Not really a V-berth. More of a polygonal berth.


Of course, the stanchions must be rigorously tested!

(Dear boat owners: we really don't kick your stanchions. This is an inside joke after reading a passage in Don Casey's Inspecting an Aging Sailboat in which there is an illustration suggesting we employ a martial arts death blow to each stanchion as a test. We don't. Really.)


Love me the bronze hardware, hoo.


Shiny, clean engine.


Matt playing invisible blackjack.

"Hit me."


One of the few, slight differences between this boat and the other Crealock 37 we check out. A wheel. Christy much prefers a tiller as a simpler, more pure steering mechanism. Better feel, more in tune with the boat. I much prefer a wheel because when I'm docking this 16,000 lb beast in a side wind, the last thing I feel like concentrating on is which direction to push the tiller to make the boat go over THERE NOW. Push left to go right. Push right to go left. Except when backing up in a metric country. Or daylight savings time.

The rest of the pictures are here in our smugmug gallery.

crealock 37

Christy and I hopped on the motorcycle - after a long morning of trying to get the batteries charged - and ran up to Bellingham to take a look at two boats. The latter, a Pearson 424 was too big and too Partridge Family for us. It was a 1979 boat replete with naugahide (won't somebody think of the naugas?!) and a rough interior. Although it had a shiny stainless steel caprail all around the boat.

The first boat we saw, however, was a really interesting boat and is currently sitting neck and neck with the Huntingford boat as our most likely hole to dump buckets of money into. It was a 1990 Pacific Seacraft 37', or as they are often referred to: a Crealock 37 after their designer, Bill Crealock.

She was a beautiful boat, extremely well taken care of. But what caught my eye was the hardware. She absolutely bristles with burly bronze deck hardware everywhere you look. Winches, cleats, hawseholes, portlights. Bronze, bronze, bronze. It made for a very classic and rugged look.

She was a convertible cutter rig with a removable solent stay, giving lots of sail plan options at your disposal. The mast was not terribly tall, and perhaps why they have a reputation for being slow sailing boats.

The interior of the boat was compact but not nearly as cramped as folks would have you believe. She seemed plenty comfortable for the likes of us.


A well designed canoe stern. Too many canoe sterns flare out into this big butt that looks like the after effect of too many Big Macs. Crealock figured out the aesthetics of the canoe stern.






Cool stern anchor setup from the factory.






Four (count 'em!) big bronze cleats at the bow.


Chainplate for the removable staysail stay.


Weathered bronze portlights. Me likey.

All the pics posted here on our smugmug account.